Before it was legal entanglements and governmental bureaucracy that kept the Edgard/Reserve ferry out of commission for more than two years. Now it appears that Mother Nature is holding up the return.

State Department of Transportation and Development officials say the ferry soon will be motoring back to the riverbanks of St. John the Baptist Parish, but first the water levels in the Mississippi River must drop before the Corps of Engineers will allow placement of a power pole.

The river is too high for state workers to install a utility pole along the levee that's needed to power the ferry landing and connect to an existing pole. State officials are awaiting word from the corps to move forward, DOTD spokeswoman Lauren Lee said.

"We must wait until it drops below 11 feet,'' she said. "We're hoping to resume services by late May . . . but it depends on the river stage."

The ferry closed in 2007 while repairs were made to the landing and the levee. But once those repairs were made the parish and the Archdiocese of New Orleans wrangled for about a year over access to a stretch of land on the river batture needed for the utility pole. The land is owned by St. John the Baptist Parish Catholic Church in Edgard.

The parish and the church reached an agreement in January and all that apparently stood in the way of the ferry's return was getting three power poles up. Two have been installed.

"We need to install our own pole to accept services from (the utility company),'' Lee said.